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| Screen shot of Dazed Digital feature. |
The Station X exhibition is still installed in Hut 8 at Bletchley Park, which has a brand new website, take a look!
Showing posts with label Bletchley Park. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bletchley Park. Show all posts
The dA-Zed guide to surveillance
The Station X exhibition is still installed in Hut 8 at Bletchley Park, which has a brand new website, take a look!
Wartime carrier pigeon found in chimney
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| Pigeon code from BBC News site (link below) |
Delighted by today's news that the remains of a carrier pigeon have been found in a Surrey chimney, with the red canister still attached. (Not so good for the unfortunate pigeon of course). According to Colin Hill, who looks after the Pigeon Exhibition at Bletchley Park, the message is unusual because it is in code not longhand. GCHQ are now tasked with decoding it. See the report by the BBC's John Maguire here. A photograph of the bones and the code can be found here (thanks to Bletchley Park Research).
Further pigeon news: War Horse author Michael Morpurgo has revealed that he's writing a story about a wartime pigeon.
And more pigeonry: Dennis da Silva's short film Gustav was premiered on the final day of the Ghost Station exhibition at Bletchley Park (which Station X was part of). The film is based on the story of the pigeon that delivered the first message of the D Day Landings at Normandy on 6th June 1944.
An update to the chimney pigeon story from the BBC News site, December 16, 2012.
Dr Black's book (and socks)
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Rachael Marshall, Histories, Block D, Bletchley Park. Photograph printed on acoustically transparent speaker grille, 23.3 x 15.2 x 0.3 inches. 2010. [On speaker] Caroline Devine, Carrier Waves right channel (dur 35'50") [Audio] |
While installing Station X in Hut 8 during the blisteringly hot first week in September I spotted a familiar face being filmed outside Hut 3. With pillar-box-red hair and a black 'Enigma' t-shirt it could only be Dr. Sue Black. We haven't actually met yet but Sue is very well known at Bletchley Park and on Twitter for her Saving Bletchley Park campaign.
Sue has written a book about how it all started with her first visit to the site back in 2008, her tweet to a certain Mr Fry, (who happened to be stuck in a lift when he received it) and all the people involved with raising awareness of, and raising funds for this unique and historic place. The book, also called Saving Bletchley Park is being crowdfunded on Unbound Books. Please take a look here to find out how to make a pledge, and to see the video that Sue was making in the sunshine while I was building things in the blacked-out Teleprinter Room of Hut 8. (I'm disappointed that the limited edition Enigma socks had already been snapped up by the time I saw the page). Ten per cent of all profits from the book will go to the Bletchley Park Trust.
Here's an extract of the pitch about the Saving Bletchley Park on Unbound Books:
On more than one occasion Bletchley Park has been in the shadow of bulldozers, but it still stands as a testament to those who worked there during World War II, and those who have tirelessly campaigned to save it. During the many years that Bletchley Park’s future has hung in the balance, the campaign has been kept alive by the unerring belief that something so significant to our wartime victory in 1945 should be preserved for future generations.
Selecting an image for this post was easy: it's called 'Histories'.
Six days left to see Ghost Station
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Rachael Marshall, Documenting Blocks C and D II, Bletchley Park, Ten projected photographs, 2010-2012. |
The Ghost Station exhibition will be closing this Sunday, 30th September. However, Station X, which includes my photographs, will remain in Hut 8.
Ghost Station features the work of 23 artists, all inspired by different aspects of Bletchley Park and its wartime work. 'Gustav', a film about a wartime pigeon by Dennis Da Silva, will be shown at 2pm on Sunday, as part of the closing party for the ArtHertz show.
It was great to meet many of the artists on the opening night. Here's a list of them, with links where possible:
Hannah Elizabeth Allan
Hannah Rae Alton
Angelo Cerantola
Al Croseri
Dennis Da Silva
Elizabeth Dismorr
Bradley Hayman
Birgitta Hosea
Lloyd Hughes
Hannah Hull
Esther Johnson
Adrian Lee
Gemma Marmalade
Fleur Melbourn
Catrin Morgan
Paul Matosic
Ingrid Plum
Julia Roach
Colin Turner
Station X (that's Caroline Devine, Maya Ramsay, Luke Williams and me).
Station X in the Teleprinter Room at Bletchley Park
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Rachael Marshall, Creep, Block C, Bletchley Park. Acrylic mounted photograph, 16 x 24 inches. 2011. |
Station X is now installed in the Teleprinter Room in Hut 8, Alan Turing's hut. It's currently part of Ghost Station, the ArtHertz exhibition for Milton Keynes Heritage Open Days, but will remain in the room on a loan to the Bletchley Park Trust's collection.
Thank you to everyone who attended the Private View last night, including Councillor Catriona Morris, Mayor of Milton Keynes. It was great to meet some of the other 20 artists who are showing work inspired by the unique history of Bletchley Park. Also huge thanks to all the staff and volunteers of Bletchley Park, ArtHertz and everyone who assisted us with the tricky installation; securing artworks and AV equipment in a listed building is not easy! Special thanks to Dad, whose first post-retirement project was plinth-making, Pete, for stepping in with various tools, Gary for loan of equipment (and a tutorial in using it) and Mussy for last-minute help with wiring and nerve-calming.
Also, huge thanks once again to our supporters PMC Speakers and the Milton Keynes Community Foundation: installing Station X at Bletchley Park could not have happened without your help.
We've already had some lovely comments from people who saw the show last night - a testament to what a strong team the four of us are. Me getting stuck inside one of the projector plinths was just one of many funny moments from this week. Luckily no-one took a photo of that.
Finally I have a chance to catch up with the rest of the country and watch The Bletchley Circle!
Ghost Station at Bletchley Park
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Ghost Station flyer by ArtHertz |
Ghost Station is the new exhibition from ArtHertz, staged at Bletchley Park - the home of code breaking during World War II and the birthplace of modern technology. The month long event is part of the Milton Keynes Heritage Open Days - Summer of Culture 2012 and explores themes of codes, code-breaking and messages, Alan Turing, the role of pigeons and women in World War II. The exhibition also explores the ongoing ArtHertz agenda of the analogue / digital distinction. Ghost Station will also include the critically acclaimed collaborative piece, Station X (featured on BBC Radio 4) - an installation that documents the Bletchley buildings with sound, film, photography and surfaces.
Over 20 selected contemporary artists' work will be interspersed amongst the museum's exhibits in Hut 8, the Bombe Hut and Hut 11. The Enigma Cinema at Bletchley will also play host to screenings of short films curated by Rushes Soho Shorts Film Festival and ArtHertz presenting the UK Premiere of Al Croseri's feature length film,The Pigeoneers, Esther Johnson's 'Analogue Kingdom' and 'Tune In'. There will also be a closing party and premiere of the war pigeon short, 'Gustav' by Dennis Da Silva on 30th September.
Station X in Hut 8 at Bletchley Park
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The bicycle shed outside Hut 8. Photograph by Rachael Marshall.
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The Station X work is returning to the place where it was created: Bletchley Park. We'll be exhibiting in Hut 8, which was refurbished to resemble its wartime layout in 2005 and currently houses displays about leisure time for the codebreakers and the heroic carrier pigeons.
Our work will be part of Ghost Station, an exhibition by a range of artists inspired by codebreakers and the site they worked at in secrecy. More information about Ghost Station can be found here.
Pigeons and an interview with the BBC
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Rachael Marshall, Image from Documenting Station X, Blocks C and D I, Ten projected photographs, 2010-2012. |
An interview with Caroline, Maya and me has just been published on BBC News Beds, Herts & Bucks.
"They have lifted rust-covered surfaces from walls, recorded the
squawking of pigeons and other sounds from inside the decaying
buildings, and those that come from outside like the rumble of trains
from the nearby West Coast line."
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World War
II Parachute Container. These were used to supply European Resistance
Groups with pigeon message carriers. Donated by Mrs Challis. Photograph
by Rachael Marshall.
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The pigeons at Bletchley Park are such a big part of the Station X project, so I went back to the Hut 8 for another look at the collection yesterday. This was after a quick look inside Block D, where I noticed that the bird that is on top of an old file in one of my photographs, 'Histories', in the exhibition is now on the floor where the sunlight doesn't reach its wings.
Review of Station X
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Rachael Marshall, Locked, Block D, Bletchley Park. Acrylic mounted photograph, 16 x 24 inches. 2011. |
From a review of Station X:
"The combination of the, at once familiar, yet
other worldly, sounds and atmospheric photographs of dust, cobwebs and
the odd decaying bird, along with the physical ‘casts’ of the walls
themselves all give a very peculiar overall feeling."
Read the full review on Paul Caplewell's blog.
The exhibition opened last Thursday and runs until May 27, 2012.
Pigeon fancier
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German Camera Pigeon, WWI, licensed under Creative Commons.
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Poorly pigeon in Block D, yesterday. Photograph by Rachael Marshall. |
We've got to know the pigeons of Blocks C and D quite well while working at Bletchley Park. There's a group of three, one brown, one white and one grey, that is always in the room next to the 'rat room' in C, on a ledge in a corner that gets a chink of sunlight through gaps in the window hoardings. You get used to them flying around and scurrying unseen in ceiling voids above your head and I like to to think they're used to our visits.
Inevitably some floors in both blocks are pigeon toilets and graveyards. We really have to watch where we're putting our feet and tripod legs. Tiny eggs, mostly broken, are scattered around too. The deterioration of the dead birds is fascinating once you're over any squeamishness. Yesterday I found a near-perfect skeleton in a corridor, arranged as if it was in flight. The beautiful full-feathered wings of a white bird looked like they'd been left behind by an angel.
Caroline told me about the little chap in the photo above when I arrived yesterday. He'd been in the same spot for a few hours, barely moving, just blinking and panting. Later on in the day a shaft of sunlight came through the skylight and this seemed to revive him (or her?) a bit. He moved around a bit and reacted more to my presence. I doubt he'll live long and it was awful to see him suffering.
Pigeons were crucial to intelligence operations on both sides during the first and second World Wars. Bletchley Park has an exhibition about them in Hut 8 and you can read more and see some photographs inside Hut 8 here, on Alan and Pat Machin's site. Perhaps the pigeons of Blocks C and D are descendants of the wartime birds?
(Bletchley Park staff are aware of the poorly bird - seemed a bit daft to tell them when the place is littered with bodies, but horrid to see an animal struggle).
Station X flyer
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Station X exhibition flyer
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Station X exhibition flyer
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The dates, times and venue for the Station X exhibition cannot possibly change now that the flyers are ordered, and if anyone spots a typo on this I really don't want to know!
So much to see at Bletchley Park
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Wartime living room and kitchen with mannequin wearing Girl Guide uniform in Bletchley Park Museum. Photograph by Rachael Marshall.
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When I get chatting about Bletchley Park with people that haven't visited yet they often don't know that it's open to the public, and has been for some years. All sorts of fascinating collections are there, including World War Two era rooms like the one above, Jack and Rita Darrah's amazing Churchill Collection, the Post Office, which issues first day and commemorative covers, the Museum of Cinema Technology and of course the recently opened Turing Exhibition.
The full list of attractions at Bletchley Park is here. Which is your favourite?
Caroline at work in Block D
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Caroline listening to Block D. Photograph by Rachael Marshall.
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A rather vocal pigeon was skittering along some trunking near the ceiling, its calls echoing around the room and occasionally being answered by another bird.
In the northern end of Block C
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Maya and Luke in Block C
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Working in the buildings is tough at this time of year because of the cold and damp. This photograph of Maya and Luke was taken at the northern end of Block C, where the only
light is from the roof and occasional chinks in the timber hoardings on
the windows.
Our visit was brief - we spent just a couple of hours in Block C and then had some meetings about the show. The gallery is just over the road from the John Lewis end of the (recently Grade II listed) Milton Keynes Shopping Centre. An enormous pancake in the cafe was such a treat after spending the morning in conditions like the photograph above.
For once I was glad to get togged up in an overall because bending down to pick up a coffee before starting work my jeans ripped in a place that you really don't want holes! Luckily I was wearing thermals underneath. Photographing Bletchley Park is not a glamorous occupation.
You might have noticed that I'm only posting one photograph with each blog post now. This is because I'm saving them for the show of course and I hope you can come to experience the sights, sounds and textures of the unused buildings before they're refurbished.
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